Maruti Suzuki’s promotional campaign for the launch of the Ciaz sedan, is unheard of before. First the car creates a mysterious story about some cool cats driving sedans by running stories on popular news sites as well as auto news sites. It then ties it up to the new Ciaz while the cool cat in town goes about amusing everybody with his cool cat jokes and memes on social media.

Here, we look at the Ciaz digital and social media promotions ahead of its launch next month.

Buzz creation for #coolcatsintown

Last week saw many publications carry stories about a woman fainting after having spotted a cat driving a sedan in Delhi. The lady named Mrs. Raghunath claimed she was at the red light near the Vasant Kunj flyover, when this cat wearing John Lennon style shades and driving the stylish sedan halted next to her. She recalled that it rolled down the window and winked at her, just before she had fainted.

The stories also encouraged readers to share about any reports on these sedan driving cool cats using the hashtag #coolcatsintown. The publications did mention the content to be ‘Sponsored /Ad/Advertorial’ but few readers must have noticed that, and conversations on the cool cats were driven onto social media. The hashtag #coolcatsintown created some amount of buzz on a new sedan launch, but which one is it.

Online publications on cars launched in India also carried the same story about this mysterious cool cat, while adding a hint of the Ciaz. Again, a featured story, it revealed that the cool cats in town was created for the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz launch and most probably will be unveiled on September 5th, 2014, the day of release for ‘Mary Kom’, Priyanka Chopra’s new movie on the boxing champion’s life.

While strolling through the #Coolcatsintown hashtag, I happened to come across a Twitter handle by the same name with an interesting bio – “bringing cool to town, stay tuned!” It does offer appealing visuals for a follower to indeed stay tuned.

Content shared includes funny cool cat memes and cat jokes along with features of the new car.

A groovy #coolcatsintown number also added to the cool quotient. Uploaded on August 20th, the 2-minute video has received over 10K views.

From #coolcatsintown to #Ciazintown

The Ciaz connection was made yesterday through sponsored content on news sites. The TOI’s mocktale section reported to have spotted a silver chrome finished sedan without a name or logo, and said that it could be the same car that has been making the headlines – the much-awaited sedan by Maruti Suzuki. Readers were asked to share any information on this car using the hashtag #CiazinTown.

The hashtag has been trending on Twitter India at various times of the day, while users have been sharing their views on the new sedan from Maruti. Ciaz has been buzzing on Twitter even ahead of its launch.

Cool promotions for Ciaz!

While I am yet to figure out the reason behind a flashy social media buzz for a sedan rumoured to be priced between Rs. 7.2 lk to Rs. 10.5 lk, it is a welcome change from the usual car launches. Cats are always cool on social networks; everybody loves to share a cool cat meme with their social connections, and better still if it involves some mystery. The promotional campaign executed in phases, seems to have drawn from the factors that usually help to go viral on social media – cats and curiosity.

Nevertheless, it has created high levels of brand recall for Ciaz as ‘that sedan launched as cool cats in town‘. I liked the creative use of hashtags, both for generating curiosity and for associating it with the Ciaz. For a car that is set to launch next month, the Ciaz is already popular with this unique campaign, what do you think?